Here's one downside I have noticed. So far I have stuck with desert species (they are hardy) and their relatives. However, these God forsaken gnats (fungus gnats, not phorid flies - which would be bad bad bad) have been popping out EVERYWHERE because some of the soil I use is moist from many different causes (mostly just stuff that never dried out from months ago) and so I have had to make extra efforts to dry the damnable stuff out.

The reason I have them? The dirt came with them. When I buy a bag of sterile dirt I expect dirt without the mother********* gnats!

So, I need to figure a way to sterilize it without ruining a microwave, or making a smelly nightmare in the oven (cooking the dirt, not the spider, am not retarded). I can't use pesticides or anything of that sort, and all the expensive isopods I got have died because I am not good at isopod care. Eff isopods. I'll breed my own when I find some pillbugs. They eat fungus.

So, if anyone has any good ideas for drying out dirt faster than waiting on Jesus to bring the Pork Chops (in joke for anyone who read the book) I am open to suggestions.

I would spread it out in the thinnest layer possible on newspaper and let it air dry, and put a fan near by to get air moving in the room. It will dry pretty quickly that way. Do you have a small room heater? That would help as well. The thinner the layer the faster it will dry out. I would do it in the bathroom with the fan on to help with the smell if you use a room heater.

I can't imagine how bad it would reek to put it in the oven

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

No, not really, but I bet you're reading this in his voice now if you have seen the show.

Anyways, I dried the dirt out by setting it atop my computer in a shallow dish, and waited for a week. The computer is warm (but since I am a computer geek it never overheats) and a week later, it was dry. I moved Missy into a temporary home while it dried out, so now she is in her new much drier home, and she is much happier. No wall climbing, and no lid-clinging. Plus... she molted! That little one is getting less little every time she molts, so in another three to four months there may be yet another molting, and a bigger size increase.

Two of my slings have also molted for the second time now (Epsilon and Delta) and they're getting bigger. Poor little Gamma molted, but grew in the opposite direction I think. It is really tiny compared to its siblings, and it still worries me since it wont eat.

Sweetie, the one I speak of the most, is officially in pre-molt. She should be molting in the next week to year, since she's a species that is pretty much "I will when I want to... even if it takes me a year".

Everyone's habitat is dry dry dry and the gnats are gone for now. When Sweetie does molt I will come back with many pictures. She will be very pretty, like Miss Charlotte (my sibling's spider) which after molting was a brilliant red and black, with great contrast. I'll see if I can snap a pic of it too later on. Sweetie, though, will come out very brown, since she is a G. porteri (They did some classification changes recently, so the roses that were brown are now recognized as being very different). Even in pre-molt she still lets me handle her without issue.

She is pretty, but I wouldn't hold her ever until she changes her attitude about the water dish being cleaned or refilled. She's grabbed on to it and tried to keep it there from me recently. She also tries to steal the paint brushes I use to herd them with into their hides whenever I do any tank work.

Here is Missy (Grammostola pulchra, "Brazilian Black") the small sling I had mentioned I got being disturbed by me, trying to run away from me, and then realizing it was food time. Then it stopped running away.

This is the beginning of the process, I watched her slowly turn herself onto her back. This position allows for the legs and lower portion of the exuvium to be pushed off, while the top part of the carapace will pop off under her. If all goes well, it will be a clean molt with no issues.

I just read a detective/thriller novel where the "bad" guy had spiders...pretty cool...and I was all happy because I recognized some of the names from your posts! *pats self on back* One in the book was molting, and the guy was worried about her...it's cool to see a pic of the molt!

"I don't have any idea if my dogs respect me or not, but they're greedy and I have their stuff." -- Patty Ruzzo

"Dogs don't want to control people. They want to control their own lives." --John Bradshaw